Hi All,

I'm a teacher who is on a reduced schedule for about four months a year, mid-December through mid-February and mid-June through mid-August. I also have a REALLY cluttered home. In the past, I've had some success with setting myself a goal of doing a certain number of hours of decluttering during my periods of reduced work. I set one overall goal (usually 40 hours), then chip away at it in smaller increments of time. Some days I aim for an hour; others for four hours (with breaks!). I basically use Flylady's timer method described here, but with longer periods of time than 15 minutes:

http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-sta...ng-15-minutes/

Last summer (2022), I had to teach, so I was not able to finish my regular summer 40 hours until mid-February of this year. And this winter, I had a big work project which kept me from doing much, so I'm having to revise the timeline of these batches of 40 hours. Instead of completing a whole batch in winter this year, I am aiming to complete a new batch between today, March 3, and May 24, when my dad will be arriving for a visit. It will be hard to declutter much while I'm teaching, but decluttering has become so important to my mental health, I actually think I'm going to devote most of my spring break to it this year.

Though clutter is still an issue, over the years of focusing on getting rid of it, I've also discovered I need to spend time on making my home comfortable and pleasant which involves putting in time on things like repotting plants into pretty containers, picking out a nice bureau scarf and a "jewelry tree" to make the bureau in my bedroom pretty, and finding a nice tray for the containers of salt, pepper, and olive oil by my stove. I've learned that decluttering is not all it takes for me to finally enjoy my living spaces - figuring out what's pleasing aesthetically to me is super-important too - and really fun.

In any case, since I started these batches of 40 hours of decluttering in winter of 2017, I've made a lot of progress. My home isn't perfect, but it is MUCH less cluttered and MUCH more comfortable to me than it was six (!!) years ago. And recording my progress here has really helped.

I know for some people setting up a home is kind of second nature, but I've always struggled with it and always lived in cluttered, uncomfortable spaces, so these batches of 40 hours have been a real breakthrough for me.

In any case, thanks for "listening" and for the encouragement so many of you have given me over the years. Your support has kept me going and made a tremendous difference in my life and I think in my daughter's too.

And, as always, if anybody else wants to join in with a decluttering/homemaking goal of their own for a certain number of hours, that would be great!